Hey all, I'll be joining in the F@H for a bit. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to participate with massive numbers but I'll be sure to try getting in a few points here and there. I'll have a PS3 and my system spec rig going.

Hey all, I'll be joining in the F@H for a bit. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to participate with massive numbers but I'll be sure to try getting in a few points here and there. I'll have a PS3 and my system spec rig going.

Hello all - I am rickss69 and have been posting in the forum for some time now. I have never taken the time before to understand what it is you people do exactly...it seems you are donating your time and hardware for good cause. I started to feel a little guilty when I realized just how much hardware I have available and it is not being used for anything but my own amusement.

I would like to start with one system to get a feel for it. I have listed in my system spec's the parts I would like to use to begin with. I am a semi-retired (retarded) HWBotter, so I have no problems overclocking anything in front of me lol. I guesstimate these parts to run about 4.4GHz with HT enabled 24/7. If anyone has any tips to get me started I will gladly welcome them concerning set-up such as SLI or not, importance of gpu's, OS preference, ect.

I'm sure I will need a mentor to get me going in this venture, so if there are any volunteer's shoot me a pm.

rickss69, Welcome. I'm not the best to help you out, but I do know some things to get you started. I think you have the potential (in your specs) for about 45k points per day (Folding).
OS? Windows 7 64 bit. If you have experience with Linux, you may want to check this out:http://en.fah-addict.net/news/news-0-176 cuda-dedicated-linux-distribution.php If this works, it would make no sense to use a VM, so I'm sure that if you wanted to be the trailblazer (sounds better than Guinea Pig), that your work would be much appreciated.
As for your CPU, find a stable overclock. (your specs calls this box Folding/BOINC build, but I'm going to assume you want to run Folding on it. It would make a good BOINC system (CPU) as well, but we sure could use another bigadv system for Folding) Folding will expose if your overclock is stable or not. Most seem to find their max overclock and then back off a bit. You'll want to run the bigadv units on a VM (Win7), and I have no experience with that so I'll let those who do help you with that.
As for those GTX280's, it does not matter if you sli them or not, just follow the instructions here. That link is pretty old and recommends using the system tray client, which we do not recommend, but we do recommend the console client. The instructions work for the console client as well. You normally don't need dummy plugs (or DVI to VGA dongles) with 2 GPU's, but they are needed for 3+ GPU clients.
As for monitoring, HFM.net seems to be the choice, especially with VM's.
Again, welcome. This from the guy who was hoping for some pie (top ten on the team) and you'll push me even further away. j/k

Update: Emails from Fixstars state that YDEL is only available for purchase ($400/year) or to collage students with an e-mail address at a school.

it just goes so slow!!! i think it takes a good day to day and a half to finish off a wu w/ my gpu running full bore too

Click to expand...

Make sure you are using the -smp 4 switch in your shortcut. Otherwise you won't be using all 4 cores. SMP is NOT fast unless you're running an i7 or i9 machine with hyperthreading, and have a stable overclock of around 4 GHz.

EDIT: Just noticed you have an ATI GPU. With the current client, your ATI card's PPD will not be anywhere near that of a similar Nvidia card. Hopefully a new client will be released soon. In the meantime, do as thebluebumblebee suggested and check out the sticky on folding with ATI cards. Pay close attention to the environmental variables. This will dramatically lower the GPU client's demands on your CPU, enabling you to get greater output from both the GPU console client and the SMP client.

Each time I try to put an environmental setting in, the console tells me it's an invalid command. I've tried every possible combination of caps, spaces, underscores and numbers but to no avail. I'd be willing to do a remote connect with someone who would like to take the time to set this up so it works really well if they want. PM if you wana help a brotha out!

decided to start folding with my hdtv rig. I will eventually get it on my server and main rig - but for now at least it's a start. I used to run BoinC on them all , until memory errors and overheating made me stop. now I think i have the memory errors fixed and want to do something more important than SETi@home though i love it....

the rig i want to run this on is my PII rig.. I want to squeeze every last drop of power out of it, including overclocking. It is a PII 940 @3ghz now, willing to overclock the heck out of it. also i have a 512mb 4870 in this machine, and would like to run on that as well... I could put a second in if it will scale to be worth it. Work pays for electricity so im not worried about that

I was looking to get rid of the 4870s soon here, would there be something more cost-efficient that could give similar power?

any advice? I know how to follow instructions and will read the recommended tuts - but I am more of a quick-start kinda guy and any concise info would be greatly appreciated....

decided to start folding with my hdtv rig. I will eventually get it on my server and main rig - but for now at least it's a start. I used to run BoinC on them all , until memory errors and overheating made me stop. now I think i have the memory errors fixed and want to do something more important than SETi@home though i love it....

the rig i want to run this on is my PII rig.. I want to squeeze every last drop of power out of it, including overclocking. It is a PII 940 @3ghz now, willing to overclock the heck out of it. also i have a 512mb 4870 in this machine, and would like to run on that as well... I could put a second in if it will scale to be worth it. Work pays for electricity so im not worried about that

I was looking to get rid of the 4870s soon here, would there be something more cost-efficient that could give similar power?

any advice? I know how to follow instructions and will read the recommended tuts - but I am more of a quick-start kinda guy and any concise info would be greatly appreciated....

thanks in advance!!

Click to expand...

First, digibucc, welcome!

For instructions for SMP (for Folding on the CPU) check here. Read through the thread as some info changed. Big keys: you will need a passkey, you will need a password for your user account on your computer, you will need to run it as an Administrator.

As for folding on the 4870's, check here. The information about environmental variables is being worked on as I type this. ATI cards are not that great for Folding when considering CPU overhead and points/watts.

As for replacing the 4870's, I'd recommend the 55nm GTX260/216. Or GTX285's

I'd recommend starting with the GPU Folding and once you get that figured out, move onto the CPU/SMP Folding.

My SMP client seems to hang whenever it tries sending data in to F@H headquarters. It just kind of chills out after it's done but never sends the data in (it's sat for nearly 24 hours of not being touched and won't do anything)

Anyone have any suggestions?

Edit: What passkey should I be using? Because according to the SMP tutorial it was just left blank (unless he typed it in and it's just hidden) and could that be the reason why my stuff never gets sent in?

My SMP client seems to hang whenever it tries sending data in to F@H headquarters. It just kind of chills out after it's done but never sends the data in (it's sat for nearly 24 hours of not being touched and won't do anything)

Anyone have any suggestions?

Edit: What passkey should I be using? Because according to the SMP tutorial it was just left blank (unless he typed it in and it's just hidden) and could that be the reason why my stuff never gets sent in?

is there a proper way to shut down the f@h client? i normally just leave my pc on 24/7 so I let it run, but I turn it off when I want to game. When I turned my client back on it said that it had been shut down improperly 8 times. I just press the X button in the upper corner to close it b/c it's all I know how to do.